Left Behind Authors: Obama 'Doesn't Meet Criteria' To Be Antichrist

Via WP's The Trail:

Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, the authors of the hugely popular Left Behind books, a series that imagines the End Times, have issued an official statement saying they don't think Barack Obama is the Antichrist. As quoted in Christian Newswire:

"I can see by the language he uses why people think he could be the antichrist," adds LaHaye, "but from my reading of scripture, he doesn't meet the criteria. There is no indication in the Bible that the antichrist will be an American."

Why are we even talking about this, you ask? Well, it all started two weeks ago when the McCain campaign released a satirical web video portraying Barack Obama as "The One" -- complete with footage of Charleton Heston as Moses parting the Red Sea.

Then Time reported that some Christian Obama supporters saw signals in the video that seemed to draw a link between Obama and Left Behind's Antichrist figure, Nicolae Carpathia. And an internet tornado was born. As ridiculous as this all sounds, the activists' theory wasn't totally out of left field; there are a number of email chains that make the case for Obama-as-Antichrist. But there's no evidence whatsoever that the McCain campaign is linked to that kind of rumor-mongering. McCain and his press people have repeatedly said that the video was intended as a joke.

In case you don't believe LaHaye and Jenkins, the fact-checkers at snopes.com also did a thorough investigation on the subject this spring, and came to the same conclusion. (These people, however, are still not sure.)

We tend to agree with Ross Douthat's take (also quoted in the WP item):

The people who think Obama might be the Antichrist and the people who think the McCain campaign is cannily designing its campaign ads to exploit fears that Obama might be the Antichrist deserve each other.

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